@sg.rogers; video

[livingsymbol]

[Steve is commandeering the floor's kitchen for the moment. With the festival going on, he gets more time to himself, but there's still the situation to consider. They are all new people getting used to Quarantine. So Steve sets up with his device, sending out a message while he takes a break from the activity.]

Floor five, clean up your messes. Loki, that means you.

[Because that's easier to start with than anything else he can think of.]

If we haven't met yet, my name is Steve Rogers. I'm working with the Perimeter Guard here in Search and Rescue. If you have any problems, you can contact me directly. It doesn't have to be an emergency situation. We're all adjusting here, so if you need anything, feel free to come up or give me a call.

I typically go for a run in the morning and train in the evening. Just in case anyone's interested in joining me. Thinking about taking a better look at what's surrounding us, too.

Comments

[anotheroldsoldier]

I am. Ain't like any of us are clones. Alternate timelines. [As if that explains everything. To someone from his world, his specific timeline, it would, honestly. His tone is gently chiding.]

Luckily we're easier to tell apart. [They could be brothers, maybe, but not twins. This Bucky keeps his hair cut short, his face clean-shaven.]

[dust_of_life]

Alternate timelines.

[Sorry, Buck. This is all new to her. But she's slowly starting to get it. After all, she's read a book, seen a TV show, and gone to the theatre at some point or other.]

Then that means there was some...event or something that separated out your life from the other guy's? Is that how it works?

[anotheroldsoldier]

Not necessarily just one thing. [Not that he's going to go spreading personal details about either sets of men to a near-stranger.] We're not the same people exactly, Steve and Steve aren't the same guy.

Easiest thing to do is treat them like two guys who just happen to share a name.

[dust_of_life]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I won't treat them like the same person.

[She lets out a slow breath.]

I'm just trying to understand. You know? How this place works. How it treats us. What the rules are. I keep getting caught up. This is definitely...new.

[It looks like it pains her to admit to not knowing something.]

I feel like I need a diagram.

[anotheroldsoldier]

Good. Steve Rogers is one of a kind, in any universe. [There's a fondness there that's hard to deny, that speaks of a long time spent knowing each other inside and out.]

The orientation guys could probably give you a better run-down of the multiverse. I'm not exactly an expert. It's a bit above my usual paygrade.

[dust_of_life]

Maybe, but I trust you more than them.

[Which isn't to say he might not be full of shit. But as far as Fatima is concerned, she'll go with a supposed fellow kidnapee over the open face of her kidnappers.

She tries to insert a little lightness into her tone.]

I've seen you try to haggle.

[anotheroldsoldier]

You hardly know me. [But that's coming from Bucky Barnes, who doesn't trust that easily. Just because they're in the same 'would probably rather not be here' boat doesn't mean he necessarily trusts anyone here, barring Steve, Tony, and to an extent, Stephen.

He snorts quietly at the comment about his haggling skills.] I'm just rusty, s'all.

[dust_of_life]

I'm sort of here at a disadvantage. Everyone else seems to have friends and family and familiar faces around them.

[He's got Blocky Steve. And apparently a doppelganger of his own. Fatima's flying solo and she kind of hates it.

She shakes her head.]

Anyway, all this alternate universe stuff is really helpful. I honestly didn't mean to piss off your friend.

[anotheroldsoldier]

Not everyone. [He's met a few people who are here as independents by now. It's probably difficult, but at the same time, it's not like he would want his friends to be pulled away from their worlds. That's just the way things happened.]

It's fine. You get used to Steve being Steve after a while.

[dust_of_life]

Blocky Steve, at least. I'm going to assume Baby-Face Steve is different.

[He won her a stuffed unicorn, after all. That automatically makes him different.

Fatima's going to have to add all of this to her notes.]

And if I meet the other Bucky, should I assume he's better at haggling?

[anotheroldsoldier]

Probably. Things happened differently, for all of us. A man's experiences really shape him. [There are a lot of differences, but talking about them... That's too personal for Bucky. He doesn't know the other Steve well enough to say, anyway.]

...The other me probably has other things on his mind. [And that's about as much as she's going to get about the other Bucky, as a stranger on a public channel. There are some secrets he won't spill, even if they aren't his.]

[dust_of_life]

[She frowns thoughtfully.]

What does it feel like? Knowing that there's another you running around out there?

[A pause.]

You don't have to answer that, if it's too personal. It's just that I've never really encountered anything like this before. I'm trying to ask myself how I would feel but...I'm not sure you can really answer that, unless it happens, you know?

[anotheroldsoldier]

[There's some silence, on his end. He doesn't really want to think about how it makes him feel. Thinking too hard about things is usually a bad idea for him. Eventually he decides on an answer, short and curt,]

That is too personal.

[dust_of_life]

Okay.

[Really, she needs to just stay away from these people, doesn't she? It seems that her foot is just going to live in her mouth for the foreseeable future.]

Sorry.